‘We have to protect ourselves,’ Chelsea police chief says

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Boston firefighters remove what might have been hazardous materials from a gold Honda mini van, at 140 Williams Street, in which at least two people were treated with Narcan. August 4, 2017 Staff photo by Chris Christo

A fentanyl scare that sickened three of his officers has Chelsea Police Chief Brian Kyes calling on first-responders to protect themselves from the opioid epidemic — urging officers to treat it as they do their bulletproof vests.

Kyes, the president of the Massachusetts Major City Chiefs of Police, said he’s trying to make it safer for his officers and others by requiring extra facial protection in addition to now-standard gloves. Here is what he told the Herald’s Dan Atkinson:

“We’re going to purchase protective eyewear and protective masks for all officers, so in the event that we respond to these type of calls, it’s going to be standard protocol for officers to wear this protective equipment.

This is scary. Every day police officers are responding to calls for overdoses or stopping motor vehicles when there are drugs in the car. It’s like a whole new game out there.

When you respond to a call that someone overdosed, ordinarily it’s one person. When you have two people, three people, all unconscious and unresponsive and appear to have overdosed at the same time, that’s rare. When that happens (as it did in his city yesterday), certainly the flags went up. Certainly we thought fentanyl could be in this equation.”

A minivan crash in Chelsea at 3:25 p.m. on Williams Street exposed three of his officers to a cigarette box containing a powdery substance possibly containing fentanyl. All three sought medical treatment.

“None of these officers touched any drugs or saw any drugs — it turns out there was a quantity of the substance in the vehicle they didn’t know about or didn’t see. But because the drug is airborne (they may have been exposed.) …

I was talking to a special agent in charge at the DEA and he said, ‘Think of it like this: When you get a package of sugar with your coffee, there’s 1,000 milligrams in it. It takes two milligrams (of fentanyl) to be potentially fatal for a human being.’

If officers go to a regular call and see any type of laboratory, their first inclination is to back out and call the DEA. They have specialized teams and wear specialized equipment; let them handle the situation.

This incident that happened (yesterday), we’re going to debrief this and use it as training for all personnel. We respond to these calls, but we have to protect ourselves. It’s second nature putting gloves on, but to be extremely proactive, it’ll be necessary to put on eyewear and a protective mask covering your mouth and nose.

It’s a game-changer, and not just fentanyl but carfentanil when that comes to the area, which it probably will soon.”

Carfentanil, also a synthetic opioid but even more powerful than fentanyl, is used to sedate elephants. A dose the size of a grain of salt can rapidly lead to an overdose and death, according to addiction experts. It has been reported in both Massachusetts and New Hampshire this summer.